Mid-Ohio: AJ Foyt Racing race report

LEXINGTON, OH Aug. 9, 2009--Starting a season-high seventh, Ryan
Hunter-Reay and the ABC Supply team set the stage to score their best
finish of the season in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Sunday afternoon.
Everyone ...

LEXINGTON, OH Aug. 9, 2009--Starting a season-high seventh, Ryan
Hunter-Reay and the ABC Supply team set the stage to score their best
finish of the season in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Sunday afternoon.

Everyone played their part well as Hunter-Reay drove the wheels off the
No. 14 ABC Supply car to finish fourth in front of a sellout crowd that
included over 600 ABC Supply guests! It was the team's best start
and finish of the season to date.

"We just rolled off the truck with a good setup and from there we
did what we thought was smart," said Hunter-Reay afterwards.
"I put it together on the track and the guys put it together on pit
lane and that's what it takes. We didn't make any mistakes. A
lot of guys that are making a lot of money--veterans--made a lot of
mistakes today so it's awesome for ABC Supply and A.J. And a big
thanks to ABC Supply for their support."

On the start, Tony Kanaan squeezed by Hunter-Reay for seventh but the
next lap Kanaan went off the track and Hunter-Reay was back to seventh
behind Helio Castroneves. He began conserving fuel as did Castroneves.
When it came time for his first pit stop on lap 30, the ABC Supply team
took off the faster Firestone alternate tires (red-rimmed) and slapped on
four sticker primary (black) tires. They got him out in short order and
he kept his seventh place position.

Ten laps later he moved into sixth when Castroneves went off the track in
turn 9, bringing out a full-course yellow for three laps. The second
full-course yellow came out a couple laps later when Danica Patrick was
punted off course by Mike Conway who drew a drive-through penalty for
avoidable contact. Once the track went green on lap 49, there were no
more full-course yellows.

The team had one more stop and had to decide between a set of slightly
used 'red' tires that had six laps on them from qualifying or
a new set of black primaries. Foyt decided on the blacks because he was
concerned how the heat cycle (tires get hot and then sit for a
period--in this case 22 hours--and cool down) may have affected
them.

"He was running such a good race and he didn't seem to lose
that much with the blacks speed-wise so we gambled that he could still
keep up the pace and he did. He drove a helluva race!" said Foyt.

When Hunter-Reay pitted, he slipped to seventh because of the different
fuel strategies in play but soon moved into sixth when Justin Wilson, who
was running second after leading the early stages of the race, ran short
of fuel and coasted into the pits.

In the final fuel stint, Hunter-Reay was battling hard with Hideki Mutoh
who had put on a new set of the faster 'red' tires on his
final stop. Maintaining his cool, Hunter-Reay capitalized when Graham
Rahal went off course ahead of him allowing the No. 14 to move into
fifth. He moved into fourth place when Marco Andretti had to pit for fuel
with 10 laps to go. It was during those final ten circuits that
Hunter-Reay drove his fastest lap of the race while holding off Mutoh to
the checkered.

Visibly dehydrated after climbing out of the car, Hunter-Reay was
congratulated by Foyt and the entire ABC Supply team.

Reflecting on the race afterwards, Hunter-Reay said, "That was a
hard race, especially knowing Hideki Mutoh was on reds [tires] because
he's been fast all weekend. Mid-Ohio has always been known to be a
very physical race track. It's known to provoke a lot of mistakes
and with the heat [90-plus degrees] that we had today, it definitely did
that. Man I was qualifying there towards the end and there was no margin
for error. I was one lock-up away from going off, that's how hard I
was driving. I was just real proud for all of us, A.J. on the radio with
me there counting down the laps and we brought it home fourth. It was a
really good day."

Also having a good day was Scott Dixon who won his fourth race of the
season, easily outdistancing Ryan Briscoe and Dario Franchitti. Dixon set
a new record in the Series with his 20th career IndyCar Series triumph.

Hunter-Reay and the ABC Supply team head to Sonoma, California this week
to test at Infineon Raceway on Thursday along with several other teams.
Following the test, teams have a weekend off before returning to Sonoma
for the IndyCar race there Sunday, August 23rd. It will be televised live
on VERSUS at 5pm EDT.